Manufactured home communities tend to get a bad rap. Many people see them as undesirable places to live, preferring instead to spend a lot more to rent an apartment or buy a single-family home than live in these more affordable communities. Likewise, real estate investors tend to shy away from these properties, favoring more aesthetically appealing places, like shiny office towers or luxury apartment buildings.

That's opened the door for Equity LifeStyle Properties (NYSE: ELS) to carve out a nice niche by focusing on these and other property types off the beaten path of other investors. This strategy has really paid dividends for the company's investors over the years. Despite that, it remains a relatively unknown stock. Here's why this hidden gem is a great dividend stock to buy for those with around $500 available to invest right now.

Equity LifeStyle Properties is one of only three publicly traded real estate investment trusts (REITs) out of the more than 190 in the sector focused on manufactured home (MH) communities. The residential REIT also owns recreational vehicle (RV) parks, campgrounds, and marinas. It currently owns over 450 of these properties across 35 states and one Canadian province, with nearly 172,500 sites.

Continue reading

Source Fool.com